There is beauty in being a woman,” Emma Wareus (18), says. “And women must not live in fear of their femininity.”
Emma was one of the cast of four students from Rainbow International School that competed against other schools through the Power in the Voice competition ran by the British Council.
Emma, alongside, Nature Inger, Sibongile Phiri and Valerie Ferguson wrote the play about the beauty of womanhood, after the four teenagers realised that only females had made it through the auditions, to participate in the Power In The Voice competition at their school.
Power In The Voice, a spoken word project, gives an opportunity to young people for self-expression in live performance through the formats of rap, story telling and poetry. Students who succeed the auditions, to take part in the project would learn from trained mentors how to devise and stage their own material.
And what the young women from Rainbow International School’s performance celebrated, was, “curves, independence, the beauty of a smile and woman’s fabled skill of multi tasking”, Emma informed Sunday Standard.
“Society must not undermine the women,” Emma says.
Storyteller, Winfred Rasina, who is the Logistics and Administration, Assistant Manager with the Power in the Voice Program at the British Council, alongside poet TJ Dema mentored the young women.
“They created the work and we guided them with stage work and building confidence in their performance,” Rasina said.
Power In the Voice, was launched in Mozambique in 2005, Rasina says. Workshops were held in the field by visiting experts from the UK and Mozambique for poets, storytellers, dramatists, teachers and students.
The program was then launched in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Mauritius, Botswana and the UK. Spoken word artists between the ages of 17-19 will represent the schools at the competitions and perform alongside established artists from their countries.
Emma, and her compatriots from Rainbow, who won P500 each and two nights at the Mondior Hotel in Gaborone, will perform at the upcoming three day Power In the Voice International Festival. The Grand Finale of the program will be held at the Gaborone International Convention Centre on the 16th of August. Winners from the seven countries participating in the Power In The Voice will also perform alongside established UK and African artists and Botswana’s own Sedibeng Choir and other renowned local artists
The festival will feature collaborative performances on the 14th and 15th of August at the Maitisong and a Voice Fair that will take place at Maruapula School with many stalls, numerous live performances and open mic stages for performers, new and established, to showcase their talent in poetry, rap.
And prior to the festival, a warm up Open Mic session will be held at News Caf├® on Sunday, 27th July.
“Every one is invited to perform their material,” Rasina says.
